Elizabeth Warren calls for filibuster changes

Elizabeth Warren has been in the Senate less than a year but she’s already seen enough to call for an end to the GOP’s ability to filibuster President Barack Obama’s nominees.

The Massachusetts Democrat took Republicans to task on Wednesday for blocking three nominees this year to the key D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, calling it the next step in the GOP’s plan to “paralyze the government again” after a 16 day government shutdown. The GOP blocked the nomination of Nina Pillard on Tuesday — and the party is expected to stonewall another nominee next week.

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“So far they have shut down the government, they have filibustered people [President Obama] has nominated to fill out his administration and they are now filibustering judges to block him from filling any of the vacancies with highly qualified people: We need to call out these filibusters for what they are: Naked attempts to nullify the results of the last election,” Warren said.

Warren cast the stakes as nothing less than the GOP using any avenue it can to preserve a conservative tilt in the judicial system. Warren said Republicans are watching the D.C. Circuit — which arbitrates disputes between the private sector and the government — and like what they see: A court that “seems to be finding more and more ways to help bail out the businesses that never wanted to be regulated in the first place.”

And if Republicans continue to object to filling out the court’s 11-seat bench, count Warren as part of the growing contingent of Senate Democrats who believe the majority has not done enough in recent deals to limit Republicans from demanding 60-vote thresholds on nominees. She said in that event, it’s time to line up the “nuclear option” — and change the Senate’s rules unilaterally to eliminate those filibusters.

“If Republicans continue to filibuster these highly qualified nominees for no reason other than to nullify the president’s constitutional authority, then senators not only have the right to change the filibuster, senators have a duty to change the filibuster rules,” Warren said. “We cannot turn our backs on the Constitution. We cannot abdicate our oath of office.”